Chapter 5: A Plea to Be Heard

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  2.     Ann Anderson, Snake Oil, Hustlers and Hambones: The American Medicine Show (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Publishers, 2004).

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  4.     Catherine Thorbecke, Jennifer Pereira, and Eric Jones, “Selma Blair Reveals She Cried with Relief at MS Diagnosis After Being ‘Not Taken Seriously’ by Doctors,” GMA, Feb. 26, 2019, goodmorningamerica.com/culture/story/selma-blair-opens-tears-relief-ms-diagnosis-61310469.

  5.     Julie Miller, “‘There’s No Tragedy for Me’: Selma Blair’s Transformation,” Vanity Fair, March 2019, vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/02/selma-blairs-transformation.

  6.     Nightline, season 40, episode 41, “Selma Blair Describes the Moment She Received Her Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis,” ABC, Feb. 26, 2019, abc.com/shows/nightline/episode-guide/2019-02/26-022619-selma-blair-describes-the-moment-she-received-her-multiple-sclerosis-diagnosis, accessed Nov. 15, 2021.

  7.     Pat Anson, “Women in Pain Report Significant Gender Bias” National Pain Report, Nov. 8, 2015, nationalpainreport.com/women-in-pain-report-significant-gender-bias-8824696.html.

  8.     Bernard L. Harlow and Elizabeth Gunther Stewart, “A Population-Based Assessment of Chronic Unexplained Vulvar Pain: Have We Underestimated the Prevalence of Vulvodynia?” Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association 58, no. 2 (2003): 82–8.

  9.     Tracy Jarrett, “Endometriosis Increases Risk of Heart Disease in Young Women,” NBC News, March 29, 2016, nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/endometriosis-increases-risk-heart-disease-young-women-n547381.

  10.   Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, “All You Get Is Birth Control|March 21, 2018 Act 2, Part 1|Full Frontal on TBS,” March 22, 2018, YouTube video, 3:53, youtube.com/watch?v=X2FS0s95o_Q.

  11.   Esther H. Chen et al., “Gender Disparity in Analgesic Treatment of Emergency Department Patients with Acute Abdominal Pain, Academic Emergency Medicine 15, no. 5 (May 2008): 414–18, doi:10.1111/j.1553–2712.2008.00100.x, PMID: 18439195.

  12.   K. L. Calderone, “The Influence of Gender on the Frequency of Pain and Sedative Medication Administered to Postoperative Patients,” Sex Roles 23 (1990): 713–25, doi.org/10.1007/BF00289259.

  13.   Sarah Klein, “5 Ways to Make Your Next Ob-Gyn Appointment a Little Less Terrible,” Prevention, Nov. 4, 2016, prevention.com/health/g20486679/make-your-ob-gyn-visit-less-terrible/.

  14.   Springer, “Wait, Just a Second, Is Your Doctor Listening?” ScienceDaily, July 19, 2018, sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180719112209.htm.

  15.   Ming Tai-Seale, Thomas G. McGuire, and Weimin Zhang, “Time Allocation in Primary Care Office Visits,” Health Services Research 42, no. 5 (2007): 1871–94, doi:10.1111/j.1475–6773.2006.00689.x.

  16.   David Ollier Weber, “How Many Patients Can a Primary Care Physician Treat?” American Association for Physician Leadership, Feb. 11, 2019, phy sicianleaders.org/news/how-many-patients-can-primary-care-physician-treat.

  17.   Lisa A. Cooper et al., “The Associations of Clinicians’ Implicit Attitudes About Race with Medical Visit Communication and Patient Ratings of Interpersonal Care,” American Journal of Public Health 102, no. 5 (2012): 979–87, doi:10.2105/ajph.2011.300558.

  18.   “Discrimination in America: Experiences and Views of African Americans,” NPR, Oct. 2017, media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/10/23/discriminationpoll-african-americans.pdf.

  19.   Nina Martin and Renée Montagne, “Nothing Protects Black Women from Dying in Pregnancy and Childbirth,” ProPublica, Dec. 7, 2017, propublica.org/article/nothing-protects-black-women-from-dying-in-pregnancy-and-childbirth.

  20.   Danielle Ofri, What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine (Boston: Beacon Press, 2013), 155.

  21.   Susan Kelly, “Emergency Physicians’ Level of Burnout Jumped Last Year,” Healthcare Dive, Jan. 24, 2022, healthcaredive.com/news/burnout-emergency-physicians-rising/617554/.

  22.   Elisabeth Rosenthal, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back (New York: Penguin Books, 2018), 252.

  23.   Rina Raphael, “A Shockingly Large Majority of Health News Shared on Facebook Is Fake or Misleading,” Fast Company, Feb. 4, 2019, fastcompany.com/90301427/a-shockingly-large-majority-of-health-news-shared-on-facebook-is-fake.

  24.   Paul Bergner, “Lobelia: Legal Considerations in the Samuel Thomson Trial,” Medical Herbalism: Journal for the Clinical Practitioner, medherb.com/Materia_Medica/Lobelia_-_Legal_considerations_in_the_Samuel_Thomson_trial.htm.

  25.   Theodore W. Ruger, “The Thomsonian Movement and the Structures of American Health Law,” Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, Dec. 28, 2009, petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/assets/publications/Ruger_Thomsonian_Movement_and_Structures_of_American_Health_Law.pdf.

  26.   Samuel Thomson, A Narrative of the Life and Medical Discoveries of Samuel Thomson (Columbus, OH: Pike, Platt, 1832), 24.

  27.   Peter Maisel, Erika Baum, and Norbert Donner-Banzhoff, “Fatigue as the Chief Complaint—Epidemiology, Causes, Diagnosis, and Treatment,” Deutsches Ärzteblatt International 118, no. 33–34 (2021): 566–76, doi:10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0192.

  28.   Emily Laurence, “Gwyneth Paltrow Goop Wellness Supplements Line Suffered from Adrenal Fatigue—and It Helped Inspire a New Goop Business,” Well+Good, March 16, 2017, wellandgood.com/gwyneth-paltrow-goop-wellness-supplements-adrenal-fatigue/.

  29.   “TINA.org Takes Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop-y Health Claims to Regulators,” Truth in Advertising, Aug. 22, 2017, truthinadvertising.org/tina-takes-goop-claims-to-regulators/.

  30.   Rae Paoletta, “NASA Calls Bullshit on Goop’s $120 ‘Bio-Frequency Healing’ Sticker Packs,” Gizmodo, June 22, 2017, gizmodo.com/nasa-calls-bullshit-on-goops-120-bio-frequency-healing-1796309360.

  31.   Daniel Morgan, “What the Tests Don’t Show,” Washington Post, Oct. 5, 2018, washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2018/10/05/feature/doctors-are-surprisingly-bad-at-reading-lab-results-its-putting-us-all-at-risk/.

  32.   Erin Blakemore, “1,800 Studies Later, Scientists Conclude Homeopathy Doesn’t Work,” Smithsonian Magazine, March 11, 2015, smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1800-studies-later-scientists-conclude-homeopathy-doesnt-work-180954534/.

  33.   Jonathan Jarry (biological scientist and science communicator, McGill Office for Science and Society), in discussion with the author, January 2022.

  34.   Jonathan Jarry, January 2022.

  35.   Dr. David Scales (sociologist, physician, and assistant professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College), in discussion with the author, January 2022.

  36.   The Body of Evidence, “Anecdotes (The Body of Evidence),” July 18, 2016, YouTube video, 7:42, youtube.com/watch?v=QDlPoSSVPuA, accessed Jan. 16, 2022.

  37.   Klaus Linde et al., “Acupuncture for the Prevention of Tension-Type Headache,” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 4, no. 4, April 19, 2016, CD007587, doi:10.1002/14651858.CD007587.pub2.

  38.   Michael Stenger, Nicki Eithz Bauer, and Peter B. Licht, “Is Pneumothorax After Acupuncture So Uncommon?” Journal of Thoracic Disease 5, no. 4 (2013): E144–46, doi:10.3978/j.issn.2072–1439.2013.08.18.

  39.   Skyler B. Johnson et al., “Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients with Curable Cancers,” JAMA Oncology 4, no. 10 (2018): 1375, doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487.

  40.   Ned Potter, “Steve Jobs Regretted Delaying Cancer Surgery 9 Months, Biographer Says,” ABC News, Oct. 20, 2011, abcnews.go.com/Technology/steve-jobs-treatment-biographer-jobs-delayed-surgery-pancreatic/story?id=14781250#.

  41.   Federal Trade Commission, “In the matter of Easybutter, LLC, a limited liability company, also doing business as Hempme,” ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/2023047hempmecbdcomplaint.pdf.

  42.   McGill Office for Science and Society, “Functional Medicine (CS31),” April 13, 2019, YouTube video, 10:44, youtube.com/watch?v=3EDW_upV3ZU.

  43.   David Gorski, “Dr. Robin Berzin, Functional Medicine Concierge Practices, and the Marketing of Medical Pseudoscience,” Respectful Insolence, Sept. 5, 2018, respectfulinsolence.com/2018/09/05/robin-berzin-functional-medicine-concierge/.